Madness Killed the Cat
by CadillacJack
Summary: The death of Queen Angella caused something to awaken inside Glimmer. Something dark, something evil, something that used to only exist at the back of her mind. Catra's there to see it emerge.


**So I was reading through some Instagram posts about She-Ra and I came upon one that described Catra and Glimmer's characters. It basically said that while Catra appears toxic, but secretly is a sweet person, Glimmer is the complete opposite. Pair that with another one I saw about Glimmer meeting up with Catra again after the events of Season 3 and you've pretty much got this story.**

**WARNING: This story is gonna get violent and messed up!**

**But please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of She-Ra. Period.**

**Madness Killed the Cat**

The evening moons glided across the starless sky of Etheria.

Their presence was the only guarantee in the lives of the planet's inhabitants. No matter whether the Horde attacked their lands or not, whether they had enough food to feed themselves, or their families, or whether the mystical She-Ra would grace their presence during their most troubling times, the moons would always hang overhead, gracing the lands with warmth during the day and illumination during the night.

The celestial bodies also acted as a sort of clock for the planet. When the evening moons rose, many citizens would refrain from their work, settle down and rest their bodies for the next few hours.

But for one particular former princess, it marked the time when she could sneak away from the castle and enjoy an ounce of peace and quiet.

Glimmer sat on the edge of a small river, watching aimlessly as the water flowed in a smooth motion while the moons above gave it a more sparkly appearance.

The gentle sounds of the water flowing, along with the Whispering Woods trademark whispers, helped to calm the young girl's mind somewhat. But her mind always returned to a state of anxious panic and melancholy as she fell back on previous events.

It had been a whole month since her mother, Queen Angella, had stayed behind in order to save everyone from being erased from existence. A whole month that Glimmer had not only taken the throne, and assumed the duties as queen, but had essentially become an orphan.

The day to day duties of running the kingdom, planning battle strategies and attending to the inevitable paperwork had more than overwhelmed the poor girl.

Fortunately, Adora and Bow had been true saviors during this troubling time. Glimmer couldn't even count the number of times that Adora had helped her plan battle strategies during the weekly Princess Alliance meetings, or had Bow hold onto her while she cried herself to sleep.

But earlier in the evening, Glimmer decided that a change of scenery, and some fresh air, would do her some good.

Despite all the horror stories she had heard as a child, mostly about flesh eating monsters that laid in wake for their next victim, Glimmer found herself strangely drawn into the woodsy area and with nature in general.

Nature never tried to take advantage of you, take anything from you or even talk back to you.

It was just there.

A serene area of peace and quiet that could be accessed at anytime.

And with the gentle whispering of the woods, and the calming sounds of water next to her, Glimmer felt as if she could finally gather her thoughts.

The sound of a twig breaking nearby ruined any chance of that happening.

Glimmer immediately jumped to her feet as her hands glowed pink.

The woods had gone silent.

Even the whispering seemed to have stopped.

"Hey Sparkles."

Glimmer snapped her head to see Catra leaning up against a tree. A smirk painted her face as her arms were crossed in front of her.

"You!" Glimmer growled, the anger returning full force.

"Uh, I have a name genius," Catra replied as she glanced down at her claws.

Glimmer took a long breath in and out while she narrowed her eyes.

"Get…out," Glimmer spoke in a slow, venomous manner.

Catra met Glimmer's gaze before she placed her hands on the side in an overdramatic fashion.

"Oh woe is me I've hurt the princess's feelings…"

"Actually," Glimmer replied, a small smirk coming to her face. "I'm the queen now which means that anything I saw goes. So I suggest you go back to whatever pit you climbed out of or I'll…"

"You'll what? Cry home to your mommy?"

An almost inhuman snarl came out of Glimmer's lips as she charged forward, aiming her fist towards the smug woman's face.

But just before she could make her mark, Catra side-stepped to the right and jumped into the air before her feet planted themselves squarely on Glimmer's back. Glimmer had barely a second to process everything before her face planted itself against the rough bark of the tree.

Glimmer groaned as she fell to the ground, her hand instinctively holding her face.

"You seem upset," Catra replied.

Glimmer removed her hand and stared up at Catra with her now scratched up face.

"My mother is gone because of you," Glimmer replied, venom seeping from every word.

"Uh…yeah last time I checked I didn't see your mom before or after I pulled the switch," Catra replied. "So how is that my fault?"

"My mother stayed behind so she could close the portal," Glimmer replied as she tried to blink back the tears. "She's gone now, possibly forever. If you hadn't opened the portal, she'd still be here."

"We're in a war queenie," Catra replied, as she examined her claws. "I have my motives, you have yours and people die. Get over it."

Glimmer narrowed her eyes as she slowly got back to her feet.

"Why'd you do it Catra?"

Catra shrugged. "Life decided that I was a punching bag. I decided to punch back. Any other questions?"

Glimmer breathed heavily. "What'd Adora ever see in you?"

The question didn't so much touch a nerve but rather ripped it right out of Catra's body.

Catra snarled as she leapt in to the air and aimed her claws for Glimmer's face but Glimmer teleported out of the way just before Catra could reach her.

Catra felt the princess land on her back as she collided on the ground face first. Catra had barely enough time to register the pain before she felt Glimmer's hands reach into her hair, raise her head up and bash it into the ground relentlessly.

Catra's vision became disoriented as she began seeing dark spots in her vision. Moving her hand around, Catra felt a sizable rock come into her grasp before she threw it back into the queen's direction. The subsequent cry told her that it had made its mark.

As Glimmer held her bleeding forehead, Catra had enough time to swipe her claws across Glimmer's face. Five streaks, already oozing with blood, appeared on Glimmer's check as she gripped her check tightly and screamed in agony.

Catra smiled wickedly as she began scratching every square inch of Glimmer's body she could get her claws on. Glimmer had barely enough time to conjure up her magic as she stumbled backwards.

Although it only lasted about 20 seconds, it felt like a never ending feeling of sharp knives slicing across her body, each one seemingly more painful than the last.

By the time Glimmer had collapsed to the ground, her body had over 100 scratch marks on her body.

Catra stood above her, casually licking her claws clean.

"You princesses are always the same. All sparkle and magic but zero experience with actual fighting."

Glimmer let out a loud groan as she struggled to lift herself up only to find herself violently pushed to the ground. Catra's foot planted firmly on the back of her head. Glimmer tried to teleport herself away but soon found herself unable to do so. Her power had been extinguished yet again.

"You know Glit, after our little hostage incident I kinda admired how tough you were. Hell I actually thought a fight against you would be a blast but now…it's just disappointing. But I guess that's what happens when you fight someone who has to run on renewable energy."

"F-fuck you," Glimmer hissed.

Catra let out a short laugh. "I can see why your mom sacrificed herself. She probably couldn't stand to be kissed by your filthy mouth for much longer."

Glimmer turned her head slightly and scowled.

"Don't…you…fucking…talk…about…my…mother"

Catra smirked. "It's a free planet Twinkles. I can talk about whatever I want."

Glimmer kept staring at Catra with daggers replacing her eyes.

"Always so feisty with you. You always huff and puff and try to act like you're this badass warrior who can beat up anyone. But really you're just this pathetic little girl playing dress up with all of your prissy friends, all of them accomplishing so much more than you. But all you've managed to do is get yourself captured, lose one of your own to our side, fail to stop me from opening the portal and allow your precious She-Ra to do all the hard work for you!

Catra let out a deranged laugh as the locks of her hair began to fall in front of her face.

"And to top it off…you actually think that your mother cared about you when really she was just biding her time, waiting to get away from you. I always thought that Adora would've abandoned you first but your mom pretty much proved me wrong. I may have opened the portal pinkie but your mommy decided to throw herself in it. She didn't do it to save the world she did it to get away from you."

Catra allowed herself to laugh once more before she leaned down and placed her mouth next to Glimmer's ear.

"And it would be so funny…if you weren't as fucking pathetic as she was."

Red filled Glimmer's vision.

Harnessing all of her strength Glimmer got to her feet, grabbed Catra's collar and began laying punch after punch across the Magicat's face.

Glimmer lost count of how many times she actually made contact with Catra's face, or what other parts of her body she made contact with. She couldn't remember the pain in her knuckles when they collided with skin and bone. She didn't remember the specks of the blood splattering onto her face. She couldn't even recall how Catra looked while she was being beating her to a pulp. The whole thing was like a hazy memory.

But when she felt like her bubbling anger had devolved into a gentle simmer, Glimmer stopped and glanced down at her handiwork.

Catra's nose was broken out of its symmetry by a sharp bent in the middle. Her blue eye was swollen shut and blood ran from her nose and mouth like a waterfall.

Despite her disdain for the Horde solider, Glimmer still out a small gasp as she fully took in the girl's injuries.

Catra opened her golden eye and groaned slightly before giving her trademark smirk, albeit one with a few missing fangs.

"You finished?" Catra spat a wad of blood onto Glimmer's dress. "Princess?"

Glimmer's scowl returned. "Not…even…close."

"Oh queenie's getting mad," Catra said, as if she were talking to a rambunctious toddler. "I bet you're very very scarwy."

"Shut up Horde scum. Or, I'll…"

"You'll what? Sparkle me to death?" Catra's smirk only widened. "Face it Pinky you don't a have a violent bone in your body. You princesses are all the bleeding hearts type anyway. So you might as well try to drag me back to prison only to have me escape again."

Catra had expected Glimmer to scream, growl, groan or do something that gave her the satisfactory conclusion of getting under the princesses' skin.

But Glimmer did something that creeped the Magicat out far more than it should of.

Glimmer calmly smiled and spoke in a calm manner.

"Who said anything about prison?"

With a sudden thrust, Glimmer grabbed hold of Catra's bodysuit and flung her into a nearby tree.

Catra let out a sharp yell as her body crumpled and collapsed onto the grass. Despite every muscles screaming at her for a moments rest, Catra managed to find her feet.

But she had only stood for a moment before her whole body was surrounded with a red electrical forcefield. Catra's blood became hotter as every muscle, nerve and tendon twitched from the sharp jolts.

Managing to turn her head, Catra saw the red electricity flowing out of Glimmer's fingertips.

"The fuck…" Another sharp jolt of electricity shot through Catra's body, causing her to let out a scream.

"I guess there are some things you never knew about me," Glimmer replied. "Such as the fact that my father was a head sorcerer over in Mystacor and how his power would one day come to me."

Despite her body begging her to stop, Catra forced her mouth muscles to move anyway.

"So what? You're gonna fight me with magic? Unfair fight princess attitude."

At first Glimmer said nothing. But before long, she started to giggle, a slow, haunting kind of giggle that soon escalated into full blown laughter. Strands of pink hair fell in front of Glimmer's face somehow highlighting the monster that had begun to emerge.

"Uh…" The pain surrounding Catra was briefly numbed by the feeling of her heart dropping into her stomach. "I'd never thought I'd say this twinkles but…you're scaring me."

Glimmer's laughter slowly died down as she lifted her gaze to meet Catra's. The former's eyes could've been mistaken for Shadow Weaver's, they were so vile.

"Good to know cause…you should be," Glimmer waved her hands in front of her, causing Catra to slowly spin in a circle as Glimmer walked around her.

"You see because of your reckless acts my mom is now trapped between dimensions."

"So? She's not technically dead," The impact against the tree came knocked the air out of Catra's lungs.

"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?" Glimmer's roared before she cleared her throat and raised Catra back into the air.

"I can't tell you how many nights I've cried myself to sleep or begged for my life to be taken instead of hers. It…hurt. It hurt so much. And then one night, maybe it was this one or maybe the one before, who knows, I suddenly realized the one thing that would make this hurt go away."

"Therapy?" Catra asked.

Glimmer looked back at Catra the same way a snake would glance at a cornered mouse.

"Making you feel just as bad as I've felt."

And with a wave of her hand, Glimmer forced Catra's left hand to extend outward.

"You know Shadow Weaver's been teaching me a lot of dad's old magic tricks. She's actually a pretty good teacher. I especially love when she shows me all of the spells that were officially banned in Mystacor."

Glimmer eyed Catra's claws.

"Do you like your claws Catra?"

"Stay away from me!" Catra roared.

"I see how well you take care of them, no doubt Entrapta has likely crafted some kind of tool to sharpen them. Wouldn't it just be a shame if," Catra felt an invisible hand tug on her claws. "They were gone?"

The claws continued to stretch further and further. Blood began to flow steadily from the bottom of the nails as Catra's eyes widened.

"STOP! STOP! STOP!"

With a final yank, all 10 of Catra's claws flung off of Catra's fingertips leaving only bloody stumps behind.

While Catra screamed in pain, Glimmer eyed the claws with morbid fascination.

"I believe it's time for you to have a taste of your own medicine you filthy animal."

Despite only knowing her for a short time, Catra had a pretty good idea on how the glittery princess worked (the things that got under her skin, how she acted in a fight and most notably how she talked). And yet the creature in front of her spoke more like her former boogeyman than the princess she had fought in the Northern Reach but a few weeks ago.

With a wave of her hands, Glimmer aimed the claws in Catra's direction. Despite all of her Horde training screaming at her to get out of the way, Catra could only shut her eyes in preparation for the incoming pain.

And pain it was.

Catra felt each of her claws scrape every square inch of her body. Some went for her forehead, some went for the back of her knees and at one point she felt all ten of her former digits scrape down her back.

The latter injury caused a strange sense of déjà vu to overcome Catra.

"_Man is this what Adora felt like when I did that to her_?" Catra thought as her eyes became misty.

Before Catra could allow a tear of agony to run down her cheeks, the sensation of all ten of her nails stabbing her in the back caused that very same tear to fall.

"Such pretty fingers," Glimmer remarked as she eyed Catra's right index finger in particular. "I do wonder just how flexible they are."

Catra looked on in horror as she saw her right index finger lift up higher and higher. The muscles in her finger naturally reached their limit at a certain point but her finger kept on going. Sharp pains erupted throughout Catra's finger as she felt the muscles and tendons in her appendage strain and eventually tear away at the extra pressure.

A loud snap echoed throughout the forest as the front of Catra's finger touched the back of her hand. The pain was so intense that Catra couldn't even scream, her mouth simply hung open in silent suffering as more tears of pain fell off her face.

But she could barely even process the pain before Glimmer performed the same ritual to the rest of her now clawless fingers. Sometimes Glimmer would make it last as long as possible before the bones broke and other times she would just snap the Magicat's fingers backwards without any warning.

As Glimmer broke her last finger Catra let out a guttural sob.

"P-Please," Catra whimpered. "I-I surrender. Take me to the prison. Lock me up, throw away the key, just…just stop. It hurts…it hurts so much."

Glimmer narrowed her eyes as the purple glow around her hands intensified.

"You had your chance to surrender, you had your chance to come with Adora when she asked you too, you had a chance to not pull the switch. You had every fucking chance in the world to be a better person Catra and you turned your back on it!"

Glimmer focused her energy on Catra's left hand as it began to bend backwards towards her arm.

"It's like Adora said you made your choice," Glimmer caught Catra mouthing the word 'no' over and over again. "Now live with it."

The much louder snap, and the resulting shriek, caused the nearby birds to flee from the trees.

Over the next several minutes, Glimmer continued breaking and bending every single one of Catra's limbs. Once she had finished with her hands, Glimmer bent Catra's arms all the way backwards, the resulting snap caused a piece of her stark white bone to jut out from the skin. Then she drew her attention towards Catra's long, slender legs. Catra saw both her legs bend backwards until she felt both of her feet resting on her shoulders. Glimmer then used her new dark magic to break Catra's tail in multiple places.

All the while, Catra cursed, yowled, hissed and screamed as her limbs became more akin to a rag dolls than flesh and bone.

Catra could feel the warm, sticky liquid bubble out of her mouth as the torture continued. Already her vision was becoming hazy and her fur began to lose its shine as the skin underneath grew paler.

"I don't know about you," Glimmer spoke as if she were at a cocktail party instead of torturing another living being. "But I am having a blast."

"Glimmer…" Catra's voice came out more broken than her body was. "I'm sorry…for everything."

Glimmer glanced up at the sky and looked around before she returned her maddening gaze back to Catra.

"Wow look at that my mother didn't come back! Looks like your apology means jack shit to me!"

"I…can help you get…your mother back. I'll…rescue Entrapta and then…"

Glimmer laughed in that crazed way again as more strands of her hair fell in front of her face.

"You think I actually want my mother to come back?" Catra couldn't believe the words that were coming out of the former princess's mouth. "The one who tried to stop me from achieving my true power, the power that is rightfully mine?! She can rot in-between worlds for all I care! I have a new mother now! One that always saw the potential in me! One that actually respects me!"

Glimmer turned her head slightly to the right and smiled. "Isn't that right mommy?"

The resulting laugh sent Catra into a sort of PTSD shock as her former boogeyman appeared.

"Quite true dear," Shadow Weaver replied as she glanced at Catra. "So nice to see you in a position that suits you Catra."

Catra spat out a wad of blood onto Shadow Weaver's mask.

"F-fuck you," Catra said.

Shadow Weaver wiped the blood off her mask before moving behind Glimmer and placing her hands on her shoulders.

"Are you going to let her do that to your mother dear?"

Glimmer smiled from ear to ear. "No mommy I won't."

Catra felt her feet lift off the ground before she felt herself pound against the ground violently. With the electrical field still paralyzing her, Catra could only stare up in horror as her former abusive caregiver placed her fingers against Glimmer's temples, sending dark beams of red light into the princess's brain.

"Make mommy proud sweetie…let your anger take control, finish what you started."

When Glimmer opened her eyes, her usually bright, pink eyes were replaced with completely black eyes, with no iris or pupils to be found. Curling her fingers inward, Glimmer centered them onto Catra's chest.

Catra suddenly felt her heart, which up till now was bumping faster and faster with adrenaline, gradually beating slower and slower. But before Catra could even beg for mercy, Glimmer's hands suddenly snapped shut.

Catra's heart ceased beating shortly afterwards.

Despite the forcefield holding her down, Catra still managed to shoot upward slightly as her mouth dropped open. She glanced up at Glimmer with a genuine look of terror that begged for mercy until she fell back onto the ground, motionless.

Allowing the forcefield to drop, Glimmer stepped forward and placed two fingers on the jugular artery.

Rigor Mortis was already setting in.

Dipping her fingers into the blood covering Catra's body, Glimmer painted her face with the crimson liquid like makeup.

"Well," The words coming out of Glimmer's mouth sounding more like they came from a demon than a queen of a kingdom. "I guess she did have a heart after all."

Glimmer threw her head back and felt another maniacal laugh escape from her body. The blackness in her eyes moved out of her sockets and began to absorb her entire body. Glimmer however took no note of this disturbing development and instead continued laughing wildly at the sky.

As the blackness finished consuming her body, leaving a humanoid demon in its wake, Shadow Weaver's mask suddenly transformed into a swirling black vortex.

Glimmer continued laughing as she allowed the former Mystacor sorceress to swallow her into the unknown.

XXXXXXX

Glimmer shot up from her bed with a scream that rattled the entire room.

Her chest felt constricted and her lungs felt like a deflated balloon.

But after gaining her bearings, Glimmer allowed her frantic mind to slow down.

She was safe, she wasn't with Shadow Weaver (the witch was still locked up in the spare room) and she was in her room.

"Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream…"

The dream began to replay in Glimmer's mind. Glimmer tried to shake her mind of the violent images but still they remained.

Glimmer teleported herself to the washroom, turned on the sink and rapidly started throwing cold water into her face.

After her tenth wash, Glimmer let out a shaky breath.

"_What the hell was that about_?" Glimmer tried to rationalize why her brain conjured up that dream.

It was no secret that the newly crowned queen of BrightMoon hated Catra. The irritating furball could drop dead and she probably wouldn't have batted an eye. But after nearly destroying all of Etheria with a portal and causing her mom to disappear forever as a result, that hatred had mutated into something far more uglier…scarier.

But somehow she could never imagine herself actually making the Magicat suffer so much before causing her to die in one of the excruciating ways possible. She would have probably beaten the Magicat in a fight and then let her rot in a cell for all eternity, just like Shadow Weaver.

Just thinking of the witch caused Glimmer to remember seeing her father's former teacher in her dreams.

"_I called her…mommy,_" Glimmer shivered as a slimy sort of feeling came over her. "_Why was she even there? It's not like I want her to continue teaching me!_ _Even if her magic coursing through me in the Fright Zone felt…good…like…addictively good. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if…_"

Glimmer shook her head violently as she threw some water in her face. The ice cold temperature bringing her thoughts back to the ground momentarily. After she feels her face go numb, Glimmer places both of her hands on the sink.

"_Shadow Weaver's also the same one who tortured you and cursed you back in the Fright Zone. Why would you want to be on her side? We only used her that one time because mom…"_

Glimmer felt her stomach lurch as she thought about the last conversation (or rather argument) she had with Angella.

Taking a few deep breaths to clear her mind, Glimmer thought about her next few words carefully in order to avoid any more painful memories.

"_The point is…mom wouldn't want me to be like Shadow Weaver. She wouldn't want me to kill Catra. She'd want me to carry on her work like she said I would one day. If we manage to capture Catra…she'd want me to give her a fair trial for her actions and allow the council to decide her fate, not blood and violence._"

Glimmer found herself not quite agreeing with her thoughts as she thought she would but she continued.

"_Either way…I'd never torture Catra like that. I'm not a monster, I'm a good person, just a good person who maybe never got as much respect as she should have, someone who never really gets what she wants like more time with dad or if mom was honest about Shadow Weaver being dad's teacher, or someone who got the short end of the stick being the only one who has to recharge her powers every fucking hour while the others can use them whenever._"

Glimmer found herself gripping the sink with so much force she honestly thought it was going to break under the pressure. Loosening her grip, Glimmer took a few more deep breaths.

"_Either way, I'm a warrior, not a torturer. That dream should've made me sick…_"

Glimmer found herself looking into the mirror for the first time since she entered the room.

"So why can't I stop smiling about it?"

**Well that was…something.**

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**Peace!**


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